Pub plate of three cheeses (a hard, a blue, a soft), crusty bread, butter, Branston pickle, pickled onions, pork pie, an apple. Eaten cold with cask ale.
Where to eat it: 6 restaurants across 1 city.
While bread-cheese-pickle lunches have been farmworker's fare for centuries, the formal ploughman's lunch as a named pub dish was a 1950s invention of the English Country Cheese Council, who promoted it to drive cheese sales after the end of WWII rationing in 1954. By the 1960s every pub in the country had it on the menu, and London's Victorian pubs adopted it as the signature cold lunch option. The modern London ploughman's leans heavily into artisan British cheeses (Stichelton, Cornish Yarg, Stilton, Westcombe Cheddar) and small-producer pickles; pubs like The French House and Andrew Edmunds keep the format alive.
Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy, Egg
Tip from the editors. Three cheeses is the bare minimum: one blue, one hard cheddar, one soft bloomy. A ploughman's with only one cheese is a cheese sandwich pretending.
Neil Borthwick's upstairs dining room above the historic French House pub on Dean Street in Soho London, opened 2017, the city's most-defended phone-free.
Why locals love it: An upstairs Soho dining room above a historic pub that bans mobile phones and serves the Modern British canon to a hushed dining room of regulars.
Tip: No mobile phones, no music. Tables book one week ahead. The downstairs pub still pours a proper half-pint of bitter for £2.50.
Andrew Edmunds's candlelit Lexington Street bistro in Soho London, opened 1985 by the print-dealer Edmunds, still the city's preferred Soho dining-room.
Why locals love it: A candlelit Georgian townhouse bistro hidden between the Soho tourist circuit and Carnaby Street since 1985, established by Londoners and missed by visitors.
Tip: Bar seats at the front are released as walk-ins after 21:30. The handwritten daily menu does not appear online.
Britain's first gastropub on Farringdon Road in Clerkenwell London, opened 1991 by Mike Belben and David Eyre, still serves Mediterranean-leaning.
Signature: Bife Ana steak sandwich, Whatever is on the chalkboard
Order: The Bife Ana steak sandwich, on the menu since 1991, and a pint of bitter.
Tip: Walk-in only. The chalkboard menu rewrites every day at 12:00; the best dishes go by 14:00 on a busy lunch.
The Jugged Hare on Chiswell Street in the City of London, opened 2012 by ETM Group, runs a game-led gastropub menu with hung-game cabinets in the dining room.
Signature: Whole roast game, Sunday roast
Order: Whole roast partridge or grouse in season, or the family-style Sunday roast in winter.
Tip: Lunch and pre-theatre runs walk-in friendly. Sunday roast books a fortnight ahead through their site.
Margot Henderson's daily-changing British canteen inside a converted bike shed off Arnold Circus in Shoreditch London, open since 2004 for lunch.
Why locals love it: A daily-changing British canteen inside a converted bike shed off Arnold Circus that opens only for lunch and Thu-Sat dinner since 2004.
Tip: Open Mon-Sat for lunch and Thu-Sat dinner only. No music, no printed menu; the day's run is on the wall.
The 1869 Farringdon Road working-class dining room in Clerkenwell London, restored under Will Lander since 2012, runs daily-changing British cooking.
Signature: Confit potato, Mince and potatoes
Order: The famed confit potato, then mince and potatoes off the daily menu, with a bottle from the shop next door.
Tip: The wine shop next door is corkage-free if you buy a bottle there. Lunch takes walk-ins at the counter Tue-Sat.
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